Methods for making glass fiber reinforced materials

Abstract

A process for making a fibered composition, including providing a coatable composition with a polymerizable adhesive composition and inorganic fibers, polymerizing the coatable composition to produce a fibered bulk polymer, and hot melt coating the fibered bulk polymer onto a first substrate to form a dispensable fibered adhesive layer. The fibers in the adhesive layer preferably have a mean fiber length of about 10 mils (0.25 mm) to about 60 mils (1.50 mm) and a range of fiber lengths from about 1 mil (0.025 mm) to about 100 mils (2.50 mm).

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . A process for making a fibered composition, comprising: 
 (a) providing a coatable composition comprising a polymerizable adhesive composition and inorganic fibers;    (b) polymerizing the coatable composition to produce a fibered bulk polymer; and    (c) hot melt coating the fibered bulk polymer onto a substrate to form a fibered adhesive layer.    
     
     
         2 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the fiber in the adhesive layer have a mean fiber length of about 10 mils (0.25 mm) to about 60 mils (1.50 mm), and a range of fiber lengths from about 1 mil (0.025 mm) to about 100 mils (2.50 mm).  
     
     
         3 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the polymerizable adhesive composition comprises less than about 1% by weight solvent.  
     
     
         4 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the inorganic fibers are selected from the group consisting of glass fibers, ceramic fibers and combinations thereof.  
     
     
         5 . The process of  claim 1  wherein the inorganic fibers are glass fibers.  
     
     
         6 . The process of  claim 2 , wherein the inorganic fibers are glass fibers.  
     
     
         7 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the step (a) further comprises coating the coatable composition on a second substrate.  
     
     
         8 . The process of  claim 7 , wherein the second substrate is a release liner.  
     
     
         9 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the polymerizable composition has a molecular weight of less than about 1.5 million.  
     
     
         10 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein step (d) further comprises crosslinking the fibered adhesive-layer by exposure to energy selected from UV, e-beam, gamma rays and thermal.  
     
     
         11 . The process of  claim 10 , wherein the energy is UV.  
     
     
         12 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein step (c) comprises extruding the fibered bulk polymer onto the substrate.  
     
     
         13 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the adhesive composition is a pressure sensitive adhesive composition.  
     
     
         14 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the first substrate is a release liner.  
     
     
         15 . A process for making a fibered adhesive, comprising: 
 (a) introducing glass fibers into a polymerizable adhesive composition to form a coatable adhesive composition;    (b) coating the coatable adhesive composition onto a first substrate;    (c) polymerizing the coatable adhesive composition to produce a fibered bulk polymer on the first substrate; and    (d) removing the fibered bulk polymer from the first substrate and extruding the fibered bulk polymer onto a second substrate to form a fibered adhesive layer thereon.    
     
     
         16 . The process of  claim 15 , wherein the fibers in the adhesive layer have a mean fiber length of about 10 mils (0.25 mm) to about 60 mils (1.50 mm), and a range of fiber lengths from about 1 mil (0.025 mm) to about 100 mils (2.50 mm).  
     
     
         17 . The process of  claim 15 , wherein the polymerizable adhesive composition comprises less than about 1% by weight solvent.  
     
     
         18 . The process of  claim 1 , wherein the step (a) further comprises coating the coatable composition on a second substrate.  
     
     
         19 . The process of  claim 15 , wherein the fibered bulk polymer is UV polymerized in step (c).  
     
     
         20 . The process of  claim 15 , wherein the fibered bulk polymer on the first substrate has a thickness of at least about 25 mils.  
     
     
         21 . The process of  claim 15 , wherein the fibered bulk polymer has a molecular weight of about 800,000 to about 1 million.  
     
     
         22 . The process of  claim 15 , wherein the polymerizable adhesive composition comprises acrylic monomers.  
     
     
         23 . A fibered adhesive transfer tape comprising an adhesive layer with glass fibers, wherein the glass fibers have a mean fiber length of about 10 mils (0.25 mm) to about 60 mils (1.50 mm), and a range of fiber lengths from about 1 mil (0.025 mm) to about 100 mils (2.50 mm), and wherein the transfer tape is dispensable.  
     
     
         24 . A fibered adhesive transfer tape with a fibered adhesive layer made by the process of: 
 (a) introducing glass fibers into a polymerizable acrylic adhesive composition to form a coatable adhesive composition;    (b) coating the coatable adhesive composition onto a first substrate;    (c) polymerizing the coatable adhesive composition to produce a fibered bulk polymer on the first substrate; and    (d) removing the fibered bulk polymer from the first substrate and extruding the fibered bulk polymer onto a second substrate to form a fibered adhesive layer thereon, wherein the fibers in the adhesive layer have a median fiber length of about 10 mils (0.25 mm) to about 60 mils (1.50 mm), and a range of fiber lengths from about 1 mil (0.025 mm) to about 100 mils (2.50 mm).    
     
     
         25 . The transfer tape of  claim 24 , wherein the tape is dispensable.